Walking through Scott Hensey’s studio was one of my more surreal “trip-down-memory-lane” experiences.

Hundreds of finished toys and prototypes are scattered throughout Scott’s two floor studio, Anaglyph Sculptures. They represent decades of sculpting and toy model-making. As an amateur sculptor myself, I was struck time and again by the fact that I was seeing toys I had cherished and owned for decades. Now I was meeting the man who made them by hand.

Never mind the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures Scott had sculpted, I was more stoked to find that he had created one of my treasured toys from the 80s — Skeleton Warriors. One of the great “B” lines of toys from that decade (along with Visionaries, Sectaurs, and Crystar, and oh gosh I could go on and on). I suddenly had a flashback of my sister tearing off —and losing — the arms of my favorite Skeleton Warrior, “Aracula.” I didn’t get over that for a long time.

(NOTE: From the looks of it, I still haven’t gotten over it, considering in the middle of writing this post I went to eBay, broke down and bought a mint-in-box Aracula figure. Perhaps I may have also bid on an animation cell from the respective Skeleton Warriors cartoon, but I’m not sayin’ either way.) Anyway, Hensey piled on the pain with pictures and prototypes of unreleased toys from the Skeleton Warriors line that were just as fabulous.

The other great “oohhhh” moment I had when I was was seeing the R2-D2 phone his studio designed and made. That phone has been perched on my desk at various jobs I’ve worked at for the last decade. I have half a mind to set it up at work as my regular phone, but I do think my co-workers would balk after the third or fourth time it went off.

In the meantime, check Scott, his R2-D2 phone, Skeleton Warriors, and more in the first episode of our “Make: Believe” series of interviews and tutorials.

Tune in to Make: Believe, our new series about the people turning fantasy into reality. In addition to profiles, we’ll present tutorials and tips on miniature-making, sculpting, molding, figure modding, latex mask-making, and much more.